A Change In The Landscape

I have a Facebook pal in England.
What I’d recently done
Was send John this piece I wrote
About my autistic son.

After doing this, I suddenly felt
My anxiety increase.
I thought, “Hold on: why did I
Email him that piece?”

We usually just send each other poems
And his are invariably great. To
My dismay, I suddenly thought this was
Something he wouldn’t relate to.

Well, it turns out that John’s daughter
Recently made it clear
That working with autistic children is
Going to be her career.

*

Autism once was something I would mention
Which as details unfurled
Would set me apart from friends and strangers
And the rest of the world.

But the condition’s ubiquity now has
Altered that situation:
Everybody knows somebody who is
Part of this population.

The unavoidable connections manage to make
Me feel anything but forsaken.
Here’s your six degrees of separation update:
Autism is the new Kevin Bacon.

 

Were Baltimore High School Students Thinking About A Movie That Imagines A Temporary Suspenion Of All Laws?

It’s unclear how true this allegation is but
Turn on your TV
And you can now get an exclusive preview
Of “The Purge 3.”

http://www.baltimoresun.com/…/bal-university-of-baltimore-c…

 

No Poem Today: Just A Column & A Cartoon About Autism

http://argonautnews.com/lavida-socal-three-dirty-little-secrets-about-autism/

California Almond Growers Use More Water Than Is Used Indoors By 39 Million Californians

Growers aren’t reducing their usage but for everyone else,
There’s no ducking cuts:
Californians who know this and keep on buying almonds?
Call them fucking nuts.

http://hosted.ap.org/…/sto…/U/US_CALIFORNIA_DROUGHT_ALMONDS…

 

Hacked Emails Reveal Affleck Pressured PBS Not To Mention An Ancestor Had Slaves

So, was this star’s request ill-advised?
My answer? I won’t postpone it:
Ben --- with regard to you and slaves,
The best thing to do is just own it.

http://www.msn.com/…/ben-affleck-requested-his-…/ar-AAbcHvn…

 

Robert Kennedy Jr. Apologizes For Comparing Autism Vaccine Effects To The "Holocaust"

Mister Kennedy, hold on, I’m just thinking out loud here:
Do you
Realize that Jenny McCarthy now sounds less crazy than
You do?

http://www.latimes.com/…/la-me-pc-robert-kennedy-jr-apologi…

Four Blackwater Contractors Get Prison Terms For 2007 Massacre In Baghdad

If they had murdered Blacks in the Midwest
Instead of Arabs the Mideast
Their chance to have beaten this rap would
Have very greatly increased.

http://www.theguardian.com/…/former-blackwater-guards-sente…

 

Unarmed Black Man Killed By White Reserve Sheriff Who Mistook His Handgun For His Taser

Being Black in America has always been hard starting
With slavery & then later dealing with the Klan
But there was a certain simplicity ages ago in how it
Came down to being messed with by The Man.

Now it’s more complex and there are additional forces
That will wind up tending to be
Trickier, like attacks by guys who aren’t really The Man
But are merely pretending to be.

http://www.rawstory.com/…/deputy-who-killed-man-after-mist…/

 

Turkey Is Furious That The Pope Called The Armenian Genocide A "Genocide"

What word would they have preferred?
I imagine they’d like if it he went
Another way with this thought and had
Just called it a “disagreement.”

Or, hold on --- here’s another way to go:
Instead of the g-word, mention
That back in 1915, their nations did have
A little bit of “dissension.”

Better still, Turkey would not feel that anyone
At all wronged their dominion
If the Pope suggested they and Armenia once
Had a “difference of opinion.”

Besides, does no Turkey official realize
No matter how hard anyone may try
That we often tend to be those things
Which we most vehemently deny?

http://www.usatoday.com/…/world/2015/04/12/pope-a…/25667197/